James Schamus To Helm Philip Roth’s ‘Indignation’

Former Focus Features head James Schamus will make his directing debut onIndignation, an adaptation of the Philip Roth novel. Likely Story’s Anthony Bregman will produce with Schamus, and Avy Eschenasy and Stefanie Azpiazu will be exec producers on a film that will shoot next summer in New York.

Novel is set in 1951 and centers around Marcus Messner, an idealistic son of a humble kosher butcher from Newark, NJ. The youth leaves for Ohio to study at a small, conservative college, where he finds himself at odds with the administration, grapples with anti-Semitism and sexual repression, and pines after a troubled girl.

Said Schamus: “Marcus Messner is an extraordinary character, heartbreakingly open and alive, and Anthony Bregman is an extraordinary producer, heartstoppingly economical; bringing them together for my first feature as a director is as felicitous a match as I could ever hope for.”